Thursday, March 9, 2017

Albedo NR 2 Silk Screen Cover

So my comic book renaissance geek period continues, and I thought I'd share something that is truly scarce.  As many of you know, I love the independent comic book Albedo, created and published by Steven Gallacci in the mid 1980s through the early 2000s.  And many of you also know that this comic is famous for issue #2, which introduced Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo.  But what many of you may not know, is that issue was supposed to have a silk-screened cover!  That's right SA was pushing the boundaries of not only comic content, but publishing style and format too.  Sadly, the process did not work and the cover ended up being standard offset printed, but during the initial production process SA printed some copies on card stock as a test.  Again most did not turn out, but those that did he offered to collectors.  And this is one of them.
You can see the problems with registration and spattering (and this is a GOOD one),  What's neat about this copy, is that SA wrote a note on the back detailing what happened,
So there you have it, Albedo NR 2 almost had a very different cover, see below what a cropped final cover would have looked like.  At least some of these survive so that the dozen or so hard-core Albedo fans know what they looked like ;-)

Monday, January 2, 2017

Don't Be a Hurry Bug, Slow Down and Live - 1955 Disney Glass Ashtray

I've never heard of this before. I know that Disney did art for various organizations, most notably LOTS of military units in WWII, and Toys for Tots, but this is the first I've seen of this particular art.

Dated 1955 with a very cartoony bee character, this is a slogan for keeping your driving speed down. Dont' Be a Hurry Bug, Slow Down and Live.

This does retain its label on the back, so we know who manufactured this painted glass ashtray, Houze Art of Point Marion, PA. If anyone has any additional information on this particular campaign I'd be quite interested to know more about it.